Description: The R-77, RVV-AE designation used for the export market and AA-12 Adder designation used by Western intelligence, is an extended medium range air-to-air missile featuring an active radar seeker to engage multiple airborne targets simultaneously. This missile was designed as the Soviet/Russian counterpart to the United States Air Force AIM-120 AMRAAM. The R-77 enables the Mig-29 and Su-27 fighter aircraft families to engage multiple airborne threats simultaneously thanks to its fire and forget capability. There are other versions fitted with infrared and passive radar seekers instead of active radar homing. Future plans call for increasing the missile range well beyond 150 kilometers.
The R-77 has been designed with innovative control surfaces which are one of the keys of its impressive performance. Once launched, the R-77 depends on an inertial navigation system with optional in-flight target position updates from the aircraft sensors. When the R-77 missile is at a distance of about 20 km its radar homing head activates leading the missile to its target.